Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Hine, Darlene Clark

Description

1. xxvi, 398 p. : map; 23 cm.

Summary

1. "First published in 1941, Henrietta Buckmaster's Let My People Go remains the definitive account of the Underground Railroad, the Abolition Movement, and the African American struggle to be free. It is a synthesis of the momentous events that provoked a bloody Civil War and a turbulent Reconstruction. Center stage in this splendid narrative is the quest for freedom and the resistance this movement encountered."--Back cover.

Series statement

1. Southern classics series

Uniform title

1. Southern classics series.

Alternative title

1. Story of the Underground Railroad and the growth of the abolition movement

Subject

1. Underground Railroad
2. Fugitive slaves > United States
3. Antislavery movements > United States

Contents

1. 1. I Want to Be Free. The Underground Railroad begins in the swamps, climbs mountains, breaks a trail through the woods -- 2. Where Are My Friends? White help is needed. The Quakers respond. To Pennsylvania the honor of the first "station" -- 3. The Sound of Thunder. Garrison begins the second revolution. The Underground Railroad receives its name. Organization begins. Riots, burnings, terror -- answers to the abolitionists. Anti-slavery becomes a moral issue. Lovejoy, the first martyr, meets his death -- 4. Crusade of the Conscience. Negro leaders take their places. Congress learns of abolitionists. And abolitionists learn of politics. Eliza follows a long line of fugitives across the ice. The Railroad is now running through the best parlors. Its agents begin to invade the fortresses of slavery. The tide is rising in the North. The shadow of the Civil War appears --^
2. 5. Let My People Go. The Mexican War brings converts. A free labor North is waking to the victories of slave power. Free Soil Party, the answer. Each awakening creates new underground lines. More heroes, black and white, dramatize their cause. The South threatens secession, and tension grows. The second Fugitive Slave Law stems the flood, but who believes the levees will hold? -- 6. Stocks Rising on the "Railroad" The descent of the slave-catchers. Good service on the Railroad. Vigilance Committees formed. Gentlemen become conspirators. The solid South is cracking. White and blacks raise insurrections. Boston becomes an armed city. Sumner goes to Washington. The riot at Christiana. The unbelievable Harriet Tubman --^
3. 7. "The Irrepressible Conflict" Harriet Beecher Stowe writes a famous book for the Underground Railroad. Slaves read it in secret and catch the next "train." Civil War begins in Kansas. Boston draped in black as Burns returns to slavery. "A House Divided Cannot Stand." The Republican Party, the hope of the North. Dred Scott becomes a by-word. The Underground Railroad arms itself, for now the slave power rules the country -- 8. Fire and Sword. John Brown has a dream. Violence rises in Congress. Slavery splits the Democrats. "If Lincoln is elected, the South will go." "We're on our way to Canada, where colored men are free." Guns around Sumter show a Confederacy is born. "When is Mas'r Linkun goin' set the black man free?" 500,000 fugitives within the Union camp. Emancipation ends the Railroad in the North. But in the South the Union soldiers find the service good --^
4. 9. But We Haven't Found Peace. Teachers, books and plows invade the South. "We want land." What would Lincoln have done? Black Parliaments. The rebirth of slave power and the end of a dream. 90,000 fugitives turn towards the West. The "conductors" work again.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-388) and index.

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain